‘This has got to stop’: In Greensboro, and across the state, veterans organize and call for a ceasefire in Gaza

Featured photo: Doug Ryder of Durham speaks to a small group of veterans and peace supporters at the Veterans For Peace protest against the Gaza conflict on March 7, 2024 at the US State Dept. of Diplomatic Security office in Greensboro. (photo by Sayaka Matsuoka)

Clouds rolled by, allowing slivers of a vibrant blue sky to peek through on Thursday midmorning as two dozen veterans and peace activists gathered at the office of the US State Department of Diplomatic Security in Greensboro off of Stanley Road. The temperature was a comfortable 60 degrees with a moderate breeze in the air. Thousands of miles away in Gaza, Palestine, the weather was almost identical: 60 degrees with clouds peppering the sky. 

And for the people surviving and still living in Gaza, the veterans in Greensboro had a message: We support you.

“It has to stop,” said Lewis Pitts, a local activist and a member of Veterans for Peace. “Veterans stand for it, we want them and the world to know that we, in North Carolina, veterans and supporters, support them.”

Pitts referred to the ongoing calamity that has been wrought by the state of Israel against Palestinians since Oct. 7 when members of Hamas attacked Israel. Since then, efforts by the Israeli government have killed more than 30,000 people in Gaza, including more than 25,000 women and children, who make up a majority of the population there.

As they huddled in front of the building, veterans from Greensboro and surrounding cities like Burlington, Raleigh and Durham, held signs portraying doves with olive branches and a bright yellow poster that read, “CEASEFIRE NOW.”

It’s a call that has echoed throughout American cities in the last five months since the start of the attacks in response to the Hamas aggression against Israel, which killed 1,200 Israelis and took 240 people hostage. Despite the fact that a majority of Americans support a ceasefire, President Biden has yet to call for one, resulting in many voters casting their ballots as “uncommitted” in the Democratic primaries going on across the country. On March 3, Vice President Kamala Harris called for an immediate, temporary ceasefire and urged the Israeli government to increase the flow of aid to alleviate the “immense scale of suffering” among Palestinians.

Kym Carlyle, one of the veterans at Thursday’s event echoed the need for a ceasefire and talked about the role of the US government in Palestinian suffering.

“The first thing you do when you’re inducted into the military is you take an oath,” Carlyle. “And the oath says that you will support and defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. It also says you will obey orders according to the regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice….The UCMJ states that military personnel need to obey lawful orders, but you have a moral and legal obligation to the Constitution not to obey unlawful orders. This military oath has no expiration date….The Constitution is being violated by the State Department.”

The action on Thursday was a coordinated effort with other branches of Veterans for Peace across the county and involved delivering a letter to various State Department sites in the US. The group has more than 100 chapters in the US and has been organizing against war and militarism since its founding in 1985. At the office in Greensboro, Pitts, Carlyle and Doug Ryder knocked on the US State Department of Diplomatic Security’s office which went unanswered. In the end, they affixed their letter, which includes demands for a stop to military aid to Israel, to the door with bright blue tape.

According to the organization, members of the Biden administration have violated US laws and committed war crimes by sending weapons to Israel which they say is being used to commit genocide.

“Continuing to supply Israel with arms assistance means continued genocidal extermination of Palestinians and destruction of their culture, and is also prompting distinct prospects for a massive regional war,” the letter reads in part.

According to data collected by the US Council of Foreign Affairs, “Israel has been the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign aid since its founding, receiving about $300 billion (adjusted for inflation) in total economic and military assistance.” The council also notes that most of the “aid — approximately $3.3 billion a year — is provided as grants under the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program, funds that Israel must use to purchase U.S. military equipment and services.”

Israel can also use the funds to buy equipment from Israeli defense firms. 

“US aid reportedly accounts for some 15 percent of Israel’s defense budget,” according to the council. 

During his statements, Carlyle referenced a report by the Associated Press from January in which experts found that a “majority of bombs dropped on the besieged enclave are U.S.-made.” 

“This has got to stop; that is why we are here,” Carlyle said.

Standing nearby, supporters Linda Dunn from Burlington and Vicki Ryder from Durham both spoke about how they’ve protested the conflict in weeks past. Dunn, who works at Elon University in the Peace and Conflict Studies program said that she and other members of the department read aloud the names of thousands of children who have been killed since Oct. 7. Ryder, whose husband Doug carried a “Veterans for Peace” flag during the event, said that she and others have been protesting weekly in Raleigh, calling for a ceasefire.

Throughout the event, many of the members talked amongst themselves to share ideas from their individual cities on how they could continue the work of protesting the genocide.

“This is an unspeakable outrage and it’s happening in our lifetime,” Pitts said. “Not, ‘what would we have done during slavery?’ or ‘what would we have done back with the settlers who were committing genocide?’ Here we are watching.”